CASE bids farewell to Stanislaw Wellisz

We are sad to announce that Stanislaw Wellisz, a Member of the CASE Advisory Council and the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor Emeritus of Economics and International Relations at Columbia University, passed away on February 28, 2016 at the age of 90 after long illness.

Stanislaw was born in Warsaw, Poland on March 28, 1925. His family fled Poland in 1939 after the Nazi invasion and eventually settled in New York City where he spent most of his remaining life.

He graduated from Harvard University, where he also earned a PhD (1954) after spending two years in the U.K. as a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Between 1964 and 2006, he worked as Professor at the Department of Economics of the Columbia University in New York. Between 1977 and 1982, he served as the Department’s Chairman.

He specialized in development economics and published several books and papers on this and other economic topics. Between 1968 and 1969, he was Director of the Harlem Development Project in New York City. He also advised several developing countries such as India, Nepal, Turkey, Morocco, Cameroon, and Venezuela. He was a member of World Bank missions to Iran, Jordan, Algeria and the former Yugoslavia.

Stanislaw was an enthusiastic and committed participant in the political change in Poland in 1989, and he was heavily involved in the economic transformation of his home country and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, advising the first two post-communist governments in Poland (1989-1991). In addition, he also helped the Stefan Batory Foundation to launch the Summer School of Economics for young economists from Central and Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union. After his service in government, between 1991 and 1998 he taught at the Department of Economics of Warsaw University where he initiated the Polish Policy Research Group, the so-called Columbia Program for Master students, and the post-graduate Central and East European Economic Research Center Fellowship Program. In 1998, he received an honorary doctorate from Warsaw University.

Stanislaw’s cooperation with CASE started early in the Center’s life. In 1993, he kindly accepted the position of a member of the CASE Advisory Council, and we could always count on his wisdom, experience, and friendship in helping to guide the organization. He also participated in our research and policy advising projects in Poland, Ukraine, and Georgia. He authored and co-authored CASE publications, including a policy memorandum on “The Economy of Ukraine” (with Marcin Swiecicki) published as CASE Studies and Analyses No. 2 in September 1993. He also served as tutor of CASE young researchers in the 1990s.

We will remember Stanislaw Wellisz as a good economist, a good man, and a great friend of CASE. The CASE network of staff, fellows, experts, and alumni mourn his passing.

For his Columbia University obituary – see http://harriman.columbia.edu/news/professor-emeritus-stanislaw-wellisz-dies-age-90